The Fair And Balanced Myth – Three Reasons Why Media Bias Doesn't Matter
1. People have different opinions
In a world of 6 billion people and only a limited amount of time and space for the media to tell you what has happened to them in a single day, something's obviously going to miss the final cut. The decision of what's Newsworthy varies greatly according to the personal opinions of the audience. If you're liberal, you want to hear about starving Darfuri children and Hugo Chavez' latest economic proposal. If you're conservative, you want to hear about the latest terrorist raid in Pakistan and global market trends.
What most mainstream Americans think of the political center is considered conservative by European standards, socialist by Lew Rockwell standards, and fascist by Ralph Nader standards. This is why serious writers have written books called Weapons of Mass Distortion: The Coming Meltdown of the Liberal Media and What Liberal Media? The Truth About Bias and the News. This is also why some people think media reporting on Iraq is treasonous disrespect to our troops, and other people think it's an oil-driven corporate conspiracy to silence popular dissent. The uncomfortable fact is that true media objectivity - especially on contentious political issues - is simply an illusion.
It just so happens that those who work in the mass media, like journalists, actors and writers, tend to have opinions more liberal than the average American. It also just so happens people want to listen to them more than they do to economists, preachers or talk radio pundits, who tend to be more conservative than the average American. This doesn't mean that the media is a failure - it just means different people think differently. It's the job of the average American to evaluate these different perspectives.
Objectivity isn't one correct viewpoint. It's the expression of every viewpoint.
2. The marketplace of ideas has plenty of options Everyone knows that informed consumers shop around and consider all of their options. So why would consumers of news behave any different?
The solution to media bias is the same solution to low product quality in any other industry: Shop around. Ask your friends and coworkers for their opinions on an issue. Go online and research the issue. Go to a newsstand and read different views on the issue. Those who assume the bias of the media is something to worry about assume that people aren't capable of making decisions for themselves. Anyone ignorant enough to be politically duped by media bias is ignorant enough to be politically duped by a spouse, a pastor, or a boss. Who cares?
Perhaps media bias was a problem in 1954 when the average household had three TV channels, but in the modern internet age, it's nothing more than an imaginary crisis. Want a fair and balanced perspective? Go visit wsj.com, nyt.com, ft.com, bbc.com, nationalreview.com, huffingtonpost.com, and aljazeera.com. Then decide for yourself what you believe.
The principle of intellectual self-reliance was aptly summed up by Beatle George Harrison, in the song "Think For Yourself":
Do what you want to do
And go where you're going to
Think for yourself
'Cause I won't be there with you
3. When in doubt, use your brain
For conservatives to still whine about media bias is laughable. Yes, CNN probably is and was always slightly biased toward the Democrats. So the solution is and was always to let the market create a pro-Republican news channel, and let the two compete for viewers. Now, can we shut up about media bias, already?
Answering loudly in the negative, Bill O'Reilly spent a recent segment indicting The Media for their liberal bias. The most recent contretemps was over a decision to interview an Obama heckler who drew an angry tirade from former President Clinton during a campaign rally. By showing the former president losing his cool, Mr. O'Reilly reasoned, the media was attempting to undermine the Clintons. Furthermore, went the O'Reilly conspiracy theory, interviewing the heckler on television was "legitimizing" his pro-Obama views, creating, in effect, a "paid commercial for Obama."
The problem with all of that was that the pro-Obama heckler was a rambling moron who made zero sense.Mr. O'Reilly even sneered at the fellow's lack of intelligence, but apparently assumed the American viewing public was incapable of making the same common sense observation. The rambling Obama heckler makes Clinton's angry reaction more understandable, and made Obama supporters look like belligerent imbeciles. But Mr. O'Reilly, looking out for the Common Man, apparently was less confident in the mental capacities of his viewers.
Fortunately, the Prometheus Institute respects your intelligence. If we could only say the same for the sophists on cable
The author of The American Evolution, Matt Harrison is the founder and executive director of The Prometheus Institute, Los Angeles, CA, a nonprofit public policy institute. He has authored more than 200 articles, many of which can be found on www.ThePrometheusInstitute.org, has been a guest on several talk radio shows, and a guest blogger for CNN. Harrison earned a BBA in political science from University of Miami and has completed requirements on his law degree and master of public policy degree from the University of Southern California.
The Prometheus Institute is a public policy organization dedicated to discovering independent policy solutions to reduce the burden of government on the people, and creatively marketing these ideas to the lay public of the United States, in order to create the political demand for positive change.
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